Scottish Weather Network Forum

: First time posting to the forum
: BadbeaOctober 11, 2009, 10:40:35 AM

Hello all. I joined SWN last January and use it myself to help guests in our B&B plan their day. It is useful to see what weather is approaching our area.

I am thinking now of adding the WeatherLinkIP ethernet link to my Davis Vantage Pro2 so that I can keep my data live even when I am away and switch off my computer. I also find that Weather Display is unreliable and limited in 'catching up' when I return from holidays.

Has anyone any experience of Weatherlink IP that might help me decide?

Hi Philip, I've no experience with WeatherLinkIP but I don't think we will be able to display your data on SCWN if you transfer over to it as the data is then sent only to Davis and they won't let anyone harvest the data from their website.

What is unstable about Weather Display? I'm sure we can help out with that one as there are a few of us on here that have been using WD for a number of years and have come across most of the little quirks associated with it. ;)The most common issue with WD & a Davis VP2 is the system locking up when using the USB datalogger. I managed to get over this with a thicker USB cable that I added two ferrite chokes too. Others have just removed the mains power supply and run the VP2 console on batteries to solve it.

So if you can give us a bit more detail about the problem then I'm sure we can give a few pointers.

I am thinking now of adding the WeatherLinkIP ethernet link to my Davis Vantage Pro2 so that I can keep my data live even when I am away and switch off my computer. I also find that Weather Display is unreliable and limited in 'catching up' when I return from holidays.Has anyone any experience of Weatherlink IP that might help me decide?

Hi Philip,

Welcome.

I doubt tha there are many folk at all in Britain using WeathLinkIP, never mind on SCWN...It also hasn't been out that long. It probably does have certain advantages, say for remotely connected sites, but generally the losses outweigh the perceived gains for us amateurs. I would imagine that with an additional console and IP data logger it would be possible to have the benefit of both systems using the single ISS, but that would be quite costly and I don't even know how it would work.

I would guess that the difficulties you have had with WD in catching up, when away on holidays, has been over end of months and no FTP uploads taking place in the interim (if the PC has been off). I would agree with you that it is not simple to easily get website historical data back up to scratch, but it is possible. Other than that, if the period that you are away exceeds the data logger capacity before overwriting takes place, ie using 1 min intervals, could come into play here for a looooonnnng holiday. Increasing the interval to 5 mins would help. I have a Serial Datalogger and have had no difficulties with WD downloading in the region of a months worth of data. What version of WD are you running? The latest non-beta version is 1037 O build 02.

Thanks Martin and Baggins. I am now moving off the idea of WeatherlinkIP. I am on version 10.37L build 17 of Weather Display at the moment but will update today. The main problem is that I lose historic rain data when I come back from holidays, and I will miss the new year change this year. I have been going back manually through the console and inputting rain data by hand but that does not really seem satisfactory. I could certainly increase the logging time to 5 minutes which will give me longer.

I still however find that sometimes the normal extract from switch on stops after a few % of the download and I have to go into the menu Action/extract data from Davis VP data logger and this does not seem to update the historic rainfall properly.

Since re-routing my USB cable I have not had any problems with locking up during normal operation and I do run the console off batteries.

One further addition I am considering is a web cam looking up Little Loch Broom. Is there any recommendations on makes that are successful and weatherproof!

One further addition I am considering is a web cam looking up Little Loch Broom. Is there any recommendations on makes that are successful and weatherproof!

I'm very happy with a Panasonic BL-C140. You can see the results yourself on my Weather cam page (http://www.isleofskyeweather.org.uk/24elgol/wxcam.php).It's an IP camera (so provided it can talk to your router/Broadband it can upload even if your computer is off) and uses "power over IP", i.e. the UTP data cable also feeds power to the camera (the PSU has a special adaptor that you plug the network cables into).

Technically the Panasonic BL-C140 is already in an "outdoor" casing, but as it's only rated at IPX4 (i.e. protection from splashed water) I feel happier giving it extra protection from Highland & Islands weather.

This topic (http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php/topic,34899.0.html) on Weather-Watch includes quite a lot of comment plus examples from several satisfied users.

There is no doubt that the Panasonic IP camera is an excellent camera as outlined by Skyewright. As I was up and running with my system before the introduction of the Panasonic though (and I think Budgie was in the same era) I discovered that the later Logitech webcams were all given votes, as being excellent for use as weather webcams. I have gone from a Pro 4000 to a "Logitech QuickCam Pro Webcam for Laptops" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-QuickCam-Pro-Webcam-Laptops/dp/B000T4TJH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1255342277&sr=8-1-fkmr1) over the last year and they certainly work very well with WD with no additional software being needed...the Quickcam Pro 9000 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-QuickCam-Pro-9000-Webcam/dp/B000T5GMJE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1255342277&sr=8-1-fkmr0) is the latest one to get all the votes I believe ...see my website (http://www.elginweather.co.uk/) for an example image etc from my camera. But note that as I use historical video I only use a relatively small image size to reduce bandwidth useage (a point to bear in mind sometimes). I have my camera mounted indoors looking through 200yr old glass, as I don't have a situation for a better view (other than from the roofline where the view is somewhat more distant0.

As far as outdoor housings are concerned, most folk use the outer shell of a Halogen Outdoor Light to house the camera. (http://www.discountgb.co.uk/es-500w-tungsten-halogen-outdoor-light-enclosed-fitting-black-356-p.asp) Of course they generally also have to use USB extenders, but if done properly they work fine for a reasonable distance from camera to PC. Even powered extenders can be used, but these start to cost more with quality and distance being employed...see here for an extreme example of this, (http://www.nextag.co.uk/Startech-BUS-POWERED-USB-63422625/uk/prices-html) but there are far cheaper shorter distance ones available. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Value-USB-Active-Extender/dp/B000TV26KM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1255343983&sr=8-3) Remember also that some of the extenders are USB1 and that USB2 is really essential for a webcam.

Yep, I'm using the Pro 5000 and it's been outside in it's own wee housing for a couple of years now. I just made a housing out of some marine ply that had in the garage and put roofing felt over it. One side comes off to allow access and I have a couple of holes in that side to allow for ventilation, although they have a gauze over them to stop the critters getting in. ;)

Speaking of webcams, Im hoping to get one installed as well. Im looking to build a weatherproof housing (its a Logitech like several others use) and mount it on my anemometer pole, so that it looks out over the bay.

My question is, how long can the cable be before you get any problems?

My question is, how long can the cable be before you get any problems?

If you are talking about USB extenders then there are specific limitations...see this thread (http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php/topic,38019.msg311028.html#msg311028)on the WeatherDisplay Forum